Representative symptoms of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease include aggregation of specific protein. Protein aggregate suppresses action of proteasome which is a protein decomposition device in cells, and inhibits transfer of transport protein. And, it is aggregated together with other transcription factors and isolates them to change gene transcription. Furthermore, it disturbs the action of mitochondria, thereby inducing oxidative stress to induce cell death. Particularly, it may cause side effects of neural signal transduction through synapse due to the above actions, and it may induce neuronal death to cause declination of brain function.
Recently, many of neurodegenerative disease studies have focused on removing already formed aggregates using autophagy. There is a study result suggesting specific removal of protein aggregates. However, the autophagy is known to gain energy by decomposing its cell organelles when there is energy imbalance in the cells, and if the control is not properly achieved, cell death may be caused by autophagy.